Electrochemical sensors are useful in chemistry and medicine to determine the presence or concentration of a biological analyte. Such sensors are useful, for example, to monitor glucose in diabetic patients and lactate during critical care events.
Diabetes mellitus is a disorder in which the pancreas cannot create sufficient insulin (Type I or insulin dependent) and/or in which insulin is not effective (Type 2 or non-insulin dependent). In the diabetic state, the victim suffers from high blood sugar, which causes an array of physiological derangements (kidney failure, skin ulcers, or bleeding into the vitreous of the eye) associated with the deterioration of small blood vessels. A hypoglycemic reaction (low blood sugar) is induced by an inadvertent overdose of insulin, or after a normal dose of insulin or glucose-lowering agent accompanied by extraordinary exercise or insufficient food intake.
Conventionally, a diabetic person carries a self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) monitor, which typically utilizes uncomfortable finger pricking methods. Due to the lack of comfort and convenience, a diabetic normally only measures his or her glucose level two to four times per day. Unfortunately, these time intervals are spread so far apart that the diabetic likely finds out too late, sometimes incurring dangerous side effects, of a hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic condition. In fact, it is not only unlikely that a diabetic will take a timely SMBG value, but additionally the diabetic will not know if their blood glucose value is going up (higher) or down (lower) based on conventional methods.
Consequently, a variety of transdermal and implantable electrochemical sensors are being developed for continuously detecting and/or quantifying blood glucose values. Many implantable glucose sensors suffer from complications within the body and provide only short-term or less-than-accurate sensing of blood glucose. Similarly, transdermal sensors have problems in accurately sensing and reporting back glucose values continuously over extended periods of time. Some efforts have been made to obtain blood glucose data from implantable devices and retrospectively determine blood glucose trends for analysis; however these efforts do not aid the diabetic in determining real-time blood glucose information. Some efforts have also been made to obtain blood glucose data from transdermal devices for prospective data analysis, however similar problems have been observed.